In the given article we will dive into the definition of the Body-Mind-Soul connection, discover its roots and the reasons why it is important, go through some practical ways using which we can to improve this connection, and finally come to the conclusion about the role of the link between Body, Mind, and Soul in achieving Life Balance.
How many of us, thinking about good health, associate it only with the physical body, without taking into consideration of mind and the importance of mental health, for instance? The reason for it is that, in most cases, healthy eating, exercising, physical activities, maintaining water balance, etc. is the first what automatically appears in our brain when we think about health, which one more time confirms the tendency of equating physical health to overall health, especially in Western countries.
More and more propaganda of physical health has occurred with the emergence and development of social networks and appearing of influencers, continuously reminding us about a large role of physical health in keeping our bodies shaped and functioning properly.
Here you may have a logical question, what is wrong with focusing on physical health? Definitely, there is nothing wrong, however, it is worth remembering that body is only one of the elements of holistic wellbeing, which apart from physiological, consists of many other components like mental, social, occupational, emotional, as well as spiritual.
In this context, the Body-Mind-Soul connection plays a huge role, that was underestimated for a quite long time until recently, mainly in Western countries like it was mentioned before. The roots of it go back to Western medicine, according to the perception of which it was common to treat parts of the body, mind, and brain separately from each other and from the person himself.
Whereas the totally opposite approach to the connection between mind, body, and soul is demonstrated in the countries-birthplaces of such ancient practices like yoga, meditation, and acupuncture, according to which the link between body, mind, and soul is a central component of a pursued healthcare philosophy - holistic medicine - that considers the person as a 'Whole', with his mind, body, spirit, emotions, thoughts, beliefs, preferences, feelings, etc., and not just as separate organs, body systems, or symptoms. Thereby, considering mental and spiritual elements, together with physical, as the important parts of the holistic health, imbalance of which can be a possible reason of the diseases, thus approving not just influence of both these components to both professional and private life of the person, but also proving the interrelation between all these three aspects - three aspects of ourselves, and their huge effect on each other, pointing out the ways in which our environment can impact us.
When we experience a certain spectrum of emotions, we do not usually think where these emotions sit, however, their impact and their consequences we feel everywhere - in body, mind, and soul. Let me give you some examples here. Most of us have at least once faced a situation when something bothers us, we are under stress, feel emotional tension, etc. - physical symptoms begin to appear. For instance, the heart starts to beat faster, headache, back, stomach pain, or toothache appears, we experience a lack of sleep due to thousands of thoughts running through our mind, feel continuous tiredness and exhaustion. This is the most common example of a body-mind-soul connection. Nothing is happening directly to the physical body, however, despite it, physical symptoms appear as the result of a certain emotional state.
The other example is when we wrap ourselves in a blanket on cold days in autumn or winter. A physical sensation of heat that we feel at that moment automatically translates into emotions - a feeling of happiness, coziness, and security. All this is not surprising since all three elements - body, mind, and soul - are connected by a single nervous system, and their interaction undoubtedly affects our overall state.
The cases mentioned above clearly show that Body-Mind-Soul connection is something that we feel on the level of our instincts, however, a pace of life that is getting faster and faster, force us to focus more on daily tasks and our responsibilities - whereas leaving less space for deepening awareness, mindfulness and inner self-development.
Before going to the following, equally important parts of the given article, let's summarise some bullet points on the significance of the link between three key aspects of wellbeing based on the information mentioned above:
Our thoughts, feelings, beliefs positively or negatively affect our biological functioning. In other words, it means that our minds can affect how healthy our bodies are.
Whereas, what we do with our physical body, for instance, what we eat, how much we exercise, etc. impact our mental state (again positively or negatively).
Body-Mind-Soul connection is an important component of holistic wellbeing - a state of being comfortable, healthy and happy.
Since the link between Body, Mind, and Soul, as well as its importance, are clear now, let's move on to its role of achieving and fostering the Life Balance and consider the practices that can help in it.
Despite the fact that the topic of the Balance is quite controvercial and there are a lot of different thoughts and opinions on it, the one thing that is clear - the Mind-Body-Soul connection plays in it one of the main roles. Through it everyone from us is available find strength, love, inner peace, wellness and many more. As it was shown on the examples before, when one of the elements is out of balance, the others are affected. However, namely awareness of the given link between Body, Mind and Soul is already powerful tool in the achieving and fostering Life Balance.
This is especially crucial nowadays since our reality is such that the most common answer to the question “How are you doing?” is “Busy”. This clearly shows that in trying to cope with managing the increasing events, we are steadily decreasing our well-being by getting too exhausted, stuck, overreacting, and thus, putting ourselves in last place. In this case, balance becomes something we can only dream of, while the body will communicate its suffering in the format of such symptoms as sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, headaches, body aches, etc. All this will last until we notice them and until we accept appropriate measures.
Looking inward and beginning to listen more closely to what our bodies are telling us, paying attention towards our thoughts, feelings, emotions, developing a deeper understanding and awareness of what happiness mean personally, analysing own values and beliefs are the first important steps towards bring balance back into our lives.
The other, equally useful practices are:
Scheduled Time for Self only: Practice of spending at least 30 minutes of 'Me Time' per day on the activities you enjoy or even for a short nap will help you to improve your productivity, lower stress and anxiety, better self-awareness and self-understanding, and many more.
Planning ahead: Having a clear direction and evaluating own effectiveness are the keys to success. Make a plan in the evening for the next day (with one very enjoyable activity for you). Use this plan as a schedule that will guide you. It will also help you to determine what is not working and readjust.
Yoga and Exercising: Any kind of exercise you like: aerobics, pilates, running, jogging, yoga is another great way to balance your Mind, Body and Soul. They will help your body gain strength and flexibility, your mind to focus on something other than continuous, or even negative, thoughts and feelings, your soul to feel fresh.
Having Hobbies and Following your Passion: Make time to do all that you felt happy doing. Paint on weekends, sing while working, cook new dishes every week, dance while cooking or painting, etc. All of these will relax your mind, frees your body from stress and fatigue. Moreover, follow your passion or hobby since it might turn into something big.
Breathing Exercises and Meditation: Breathing exercises is a very good way to calm your thoughts. Just a ten minutes of deep breathing exercises daily will bring amazing results. Another great way to clear your mind of negative thoughts and feelings is through meditation. It is also a great way to harmonize Body, Mind and Soul with each other. This will stop your thought process and relax your body in such a way that you feel refreshed.
Cutting off Technology: Cutting the technology time for at least a day or two per month, will do wonders for your Body-Mind-Soul balance. In that one (two) days, make it a ritual or tradition to spend a day with family members to talk, play board games, etc, and this all with no technology.
Scheduled Time with the Loved ones: Find time to spend with your family, husband, children and friends. Relationships is important in finding balance.
Connecting with Nature: A great way to help your mind body soul to be connected and balance them is to get connected to nature. This can be done in many ways, as going on a hike, going for a camping retreat, or simply find a park or a garden with green grass and walk bare feet for some time.
An important role in finding and maintaining balance is played by the practice of Forgiveness, Mindfulness and Gratitude, as well as working out negative patterns, limited beliefs, negative thinking, and the such problems as self-loathing, for instance, that require the help of the professionals. Remember, the disease is easier to prevent than to cure!